There is important background information explaining Elon Musk’s Nazi salute at a Trump inauguration party. Musk’s grandfather was born in Canada of South African parents and emigrated back to South Africa in the 1950s. According to reporter Chris McGreal, writing in The Guardian Jan. 26, “that’s when apartheid had just started to kick in. South Africa had had discriminatory laws before, but you see the specific apartheid laws, which are much more aggressive, and in many ways reminiscent of the Nazi Nuremberg laws against Jews in the 1930s.”

Musk has a family history supporting apartheid. Musk was even quoted by McGreal: “We all [white South Africans], by the very nature of our privileges and our place in the racial hierarchy, grew up believing we were the master race, even if we didn’t actually think about it.” Musk’s oversight of the [nonexistent, unreal] “department” of government deficiency, I mean “efficiency,” is a blatant lie. It is not about efficiency. It is not about cost-cutting. It is not about government. It is about dictatorship.

So here we have it, the richest man in the world who is an immigrant, supporting racist values, whom Trump has not yet deported, is leading an unapproved “department” despite the fact that the Department of Justice clearly states that “the Constitution confers on Congress the power to establish departments and agencies in the Executive Branch of government and define the duties and functions of the officers who are to administer them.”

By the way what does “musk” mean? According to the Cambridge English Dictionary: “A musky smell might make you close your eyes and smile, or it might make you leave a room. Either way, it’s a very strong and sweet odor that’s hard to ignore. Musk is a scent that deer secrete to convince a mate to cuddle with them, and so a musky odor does the same for humans.” “Musky” can mean anything from “fragrant, piquant” to “acrid, bitter, or even “noisome, odiferous, pungent.”

This fully explains why Trump cuddles up to musk (no typo here). Trump’s name also has multiple origins, from German and the English words “trumpeter” and “drummer.” By their very names, these two people are telling us what to do: We need to raise a stink, be noisome, beat our drums and trumpet for a return to democracy, diversity and justice!

Douglas Beattie

Northampton